The Erasmus Bridge. Can climate change adaptation overtake Erasmus as Rotterdam's number one claim to fame? Photograph: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

Water plazas, green walls, floating neighbourhoods. Rotterdam, the famous Dutch university city, is building a captivating new infrastructure, but not out of vanity. If it doesn't come up with innovative solutions, the city is set to lose its battle with climate change.

"We're really planning ahead", says Alexandra van Huffelen, Rotterdam's vice mayor in charge of sustainability. "The Dutch have lived below the sea level for centuries and are used to dykes and barriers. But today we're experiencing heavier and more unpredictable rainfalls, so behind the barriers we're turning the city into a sponge."

A crucial sponge. Surrounded by water on four sides, this delta city of some 600,000 people can't flush the sudden stormwater away. Instead, it has embarked on a climate change adaptation strategy that turns every conceivable area into water storage. "We have squares that are set lower than the surrounding streets and pavements that will function as water plazas and fill themselves up with water", explains van Huffelen.

"We've also built water storage facilities, for example an underground parking garage with a basin the size of four Olympic swimming pools. And we've introduced more green areas, including green roofs and green facades, that will be able to absorb water as well."

You can even watch a livestream of the Benthemplein water plaza, which will be completed on 4 December, being built.

The city is also in the process of building a floating neighbourhood, to be completed within the next three years, that will feature homes, offices, a school, a park and even a dairy factory. More are planned in future. A floating pavilion in the inner harbour is being used as a conference centre.

Rotterdam floating pavilion Photograph: Marc Heeman

If this sounds surprisingly positive, it's because Rotterdam sees climate change adaptation as a selling point. Local companies involved in building the futuristic solutions report doing good business selling their expertise to other cities.

"The world makes its money in big cities, so they have to be operational, which means they'll need climate change protection and infrastructure", notes Piet Dircke, director of global water management for the Dutch-based company Arcadis, which advises cities from Jakarta to New York on climate change adaptation. "It's a good business opportunity. For me, being from Rotterdam is good because Rotterdam is a living showcase of climate change adaptation."

New Orleans has paid Arcadis a $200m consulting fee, and Dircke predicts large contracts as booming cities in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America develop comprehensive adaptation strategies. "Of course it won't just be Dutch companies getting the contracts", he acknowledges. "But we have something to show the world."

According to Jeroen Aerts, professor of water and risk management at VU University in Amsterdam, the reason Rotterdam is ahead is that it has integrated its plan with the private sector. "That will become the blueprint for the future," he says. Cities have so little space that they've no choice but to make their limited area climate change-proof, he adds. "Sometimes it costs a bit more, but the investment will pay off in the long term, and often it leads to innovation. In the past, the Netherlands exported dykes. Now it exports comprehensive climate change solutions."

Still, despite all the innovative sponging and water storage, Rotterdam's residents aren't fully protected against floods. But city officials point out that the only alternative is to seal off certain neighborhoods during storms – and in such a densely populated city, that's not a realistic option. "We have to learn to live with more water", says van Huffelen. "People should be prepared for the fact that we'll have floods at least once a year."

As Rotterdam's chief water engineer, Daniel Goedbloed is charged with trying to bridge the gap between public and private storm preparedness. "Streets will inevitably flood, so we have to make sure that houses don't flood along with them," he explains "It's a tricky issue, because as a municipality we have power over the public domain, but we have to get companies and residents to work with us on adapting houses."

In an initial step, one neighbourhood is now fully storm-adapted, with residents in every house having moved wiring from the basement to an upper floor to prevent power outages when the basement is flooded, and replaced wooden floors with floor coverings that better resist water. The city is subsidising green roofs with a 50% discount, and training roofers to install them rather than asphalt ones. It's also considering tax schemes that would, for example, give residents who collect rainwater a reduction on their sewage tax. Since 2008, Rotterdam has planted 140,000 square meters of green roofs, and expects to have over 200,000 square meters by next year.

Van Huffelen proudly reports that city delegations from around the world now arrive weekly to study Rotterdam's climate change adaptation. In future, innovative climate change adaptation may even overtake Erasmus as Rotterdam's number one claim to fame.